CLOSING the city's walk-in centres would have a "detrimental effect" on patient care, according to a councillor.

The Derby Walk-In Centre, in Osmaston Road, and the Derby Open Access Centre, in St Thomas Road, are alternative places to go for patients with minor injuries, rather than the city's accident and emergency department.

They are funded by the NHS Southern Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

But bosses of the group said the contracts for the services would come to an end in March 2015.

They explained that, before these are renewed, they needed to ask people if they were satisfied with the two centres and if anything could be done to improve the city's walk-in services.

It meant a series of meetings were held and surveys carried out to determine what patients thought of the two centres.

Because of the results, the adults and public health overview and scrutiny board at Derby City Council recommended keeping both buildings open.

Councillor Hardyal Dhindsa, chairman of the board, said the latest figures it considered show more than 43,500 patients visited the Osmaston Road site and about 35,000 visited the St Thomas Road site in 2012.

He said: "Both centres are very popular. Closing them would not only have a detrimental effect on the health of the local population but would also increase pressure on the Royal Derby Hospital's A&E department.

"The board has recommended the Osmaston Road centre is upgraded to provide GP-led walk-in services.

"This will help to reduce the duplication of scarce resources and will also allow patients to be referred on to GPs and the emergency department."